In response to significant demand, digital entertainment services are being developed, implemented and updated at an increasingly rapid rate. Traditionally, new services and improvements to existing services are tested in labs before being “rolled out” to the general consumer population (i.e., pay television subscribers). Typically, the testing relies on a small group of selected users, who may be screened in an effort to represent various segments of the general population.
The testing is performed under controlled conditions in the lab setting. The testing may include, for example, determining the overall desirability of a product or service (such as movies on demand or television on demand), as well as determining the ease with which the representative customers can obtain and use the product or service. For example, lab testing may reveal a high degree of interest in a new video service, but the user interface, e.g., an application or firmware running on a set top box (STB), may prove to be exceedingly complicated or time consuming.
Despite efforts to make such testing as realistic as possible, laboratory testing has limited success due, in part, to the artificial environment and the relatively narrow exposure to the public through the limited size and characteristics of the test group. It would therefore be desirable to test new services on a large number consumers under actual conditions to collect feedback, e.g., by providing the new services in customer homes for use over several weeks.
However, testing new services on the consumer population at large is risky, since they must be implemented on a large scale somewhat prematurely. In the event the new service turns out to be generally undesirable, or in need of small changes in implementation, the entire system must be re-provisioned, at the significant expense and effort of the provider. In addition, the provider risks alienating its customers, who are exposed to what turns out to be a sub-par service. Many of these customers may change providers as a result, or even if they stay with the same provider, they may elect not to subscribe to the undesirable service, even after improvements subsequently are made based on initial feedback.
Therefore, a method and system that enables gradual rollout of new services over incrementally large portions of the consumer population is desirable. Feedback from actual end users may then be collected, and changes may be implemented, before too many customers are potentially affected.